BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil – Joao Zeferino isn’t one to make excuses, but facts are facts. In his UFC debut, he took a fight on three-weeks’ notice despite being on vacation at the time and needing to move up a division to take the bout.

That’s not the case this time around.

“I don’t believe in making excuses for a loss,” Zeferino told MMAjunkie.com in his native Portuguese. “It’s the behavior of a weak person. But I believe what happened was a lack of sufficient preparation time.

“I received a call to fight on short notice while I was on vacation. I had 20 days, total.”

And as any fighter can tell you, getting a license to fight under the UFC banner isn’t as simple as just signing a contract. There are steps to take, hoops to jump through – and each step of the journey takes time away from training.

“It was a lot to do in a very short period of time,” Zeferino admitted.

Zeferino’s opponent was Rafael Natal, and the two squared off in an entertaining three-round scrap at May’s UFC on FX 8 event. Unfortunately for Zeferino, he came up on the short end of a unanimous decision.

This time, he’s returning to his natural division, welterweight, and he’s had a full camp to prepare for the appearance.

Not that everything went perfect, of course. Zeferino (13-5 MMA, 0-1 UFC) was originally preparing to meet Kenny Robertson, but he was forced to withdraw from the bout in favor of undefeated former Jungle Fight champ Elias Silverio (8-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC).

While the two opponents present a contrast in styles, Zeferino said he’s not concerned with switch.

“My own strategy doesn’t change much,” Zeferino said. “Elias is a very complete fighter. He’s not just a striker. He’s a jiu-jitsu brown belt. He comes from a wrestling base. He looks to fight on the feet, which isn’t too different from Kenny Roberts. So my training hasn’t changed much. And now I have an excellent training camp. I was joined by UFC veteran Brodie Farber.

“He’s an aggressive athlete who looks for the fight, just like I do. I think there’s a chance it could be ‘Fight of the Night.’ We’re both complete in every area. It will be a very aggressive fight, for sure. It will be a great one for the crowd.”

And so Zeferino gets a second chance to make a first impression, and this one, he believes, will be a more accurate representation of his abilities. Ultimately, he believes the victor will be decided on pure desire.

“I’ve increased the intensity of my training,” Zeferino said. “I’m training hard so I won’t disappoint my fans. I’ll doing everything to arrive at 100 percent and put on a show for the fans of the sport.

“I see myself winning by knockout at the end of the second round. You can publish that. All in all, I’m just looking for a victory. I respect my opponent. I’ve studied his fights. I know he’s a tough guy. And he’s as hungry as I am. Let’s see who wants it more.”

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